It’s that time again. Time to say out with the old and in with the new. Time for those new year’s resolutions.

My resolution is to scarf up as much ammunition as I can find over the next year. I didn’t think it was that big a deal in 2012 but I was wrong. Ammunition is still in extremely short supply and I don’t look for that to change for the next 4 years.

I’m going home shortly and I plan to take an end of year inventory of my ammunition. I’ll decide how much I can devote to practice in 2013 and how much I need to stash for the future. My guns are no good without ammunition, but they’re also no good without practice. Just need to find that perfect balance.

My one biggest hope for 2013 is that people, on both sides of gun rights, calm down and try to work together. It’s clear that something needs to be done to prevent future shootings like the one in Newtown, but it doesn’t have to (and shouldn’t) affect us law abiding citizens who use our guns for hunting, self defense, and recreation. Banning something because it looks like what our military uses is not good enough. See my last post, Words Words Words, for more on that issue.

With that said, I look forward to an exciting year of blogging in 2013 and I hope you’ll support me. Subscribe to stay informed (its just one click away) and click “like” if you enjoy my posts. Every like and every subscription fuel my drive to keep going and I thank all of you who have already done that. Anyone who wants to contact me, feel free to leave a comment or send me and email to the address listed on my About page.

Vocabulary lessons were extremely annoying in English class. I remember the redundant words that all essentially meant the same thing. I remember lots of sentence creating (“Pugnacious pigeons pelted Pete’s poodle with poop” was one of my most creative). It was horrible.

But it was important.

Having a wide vocabulary is essential to any writer. Having a thesaurus is helpful but can be time consuming. Sometimes its more than just a time saver though. Sometimes having the right word means everything.

In Bo Burnham’s song “Words Words Words”, the 3rd line of the song is as follows: “90 lady cops on the road and I’m arrested for doing 80”. His use of the word “doing” is essential to the phrase because it’s interpreted in two ways. The first way, he’s arrested for speeding, doing 80 (obviously too fast since he was arrested). But its also intended to say that he’s being arrested for “doing” (having sex with) 80 of the 90 lady cops on the road.

His word choice throughout the song is intentional and done carefully. Those in the media need to do the same thing. I’ve noticed lately a lot of incorrect terms being used to describe weapons that are used in shootings. The term “automatic rifle” is often used where “semi-automatic rifle” should be used. There is a significant difference between the two.

An automatic rifle will continue to fire while the shooter simply holds the trigger down. It will stop when there is no more ammunition to be fired. A semi-automatic rifle will only fire one round of ammunition per pull of the trigger. To shoot 10 rounds through an automatic rifle would only require the shooter hold the trigger down. On a semi-automatic rifle it would require 10 single pulls of the trigger. Two very different actions.

The other term I don’t like is “military-style”. It’s used mostly by the media when talking about rifles that possess features that are also used on military weapons. I don’t think it should be used because it makes weapons sound more powerful than they are. While in reality, a homemade explosive sounds just as deadly to me as a “military grade explosive”. The military isn’t powerful just because of the technology it has; significant training is also very important.

A folding stock or adjustable stock is considered a “military-style” feature and will fall under proposed assault (another term I hate but we wont go there) weapon bans. Included in that list of features is a whole assortment of other things like “pistol grips” and tactical rails.

Just because a technology is used in the military does not make it an evil thing. It doesn’t even mean its more powerful. For example, look at the AK47. The AK47 is a rifle that has seen extensive military service around the world. AK47’s do not traditionally have an adjustable stock. Most don’t even have tactical rails. That in no way hinders the AK47’s power and performance. Adjustable stocks are usually to improve the feel of the rifle to the shooter. The same with pistol grips. They do not make the weapon more deadly in any way, just more comfortable.

Using the logic that says guns which look like military weapons should be banned is along the same lines as saying camouflage should be banned because armies across the world also use it. Shouldn’t that make it more deadly and evil? I assure you millions of hunters have other ideas on the subject. If you ban things because the military uses them, a lot of our day to day technology would be banned.

In addition there are a bunch of companies around the world, such as International Armoring Corporation, which provide armored cars to civilians. Any entity, civilian or government, can contact these companies and have vehicles restructured to include various levels of armoring.

Vehicle armor is something most people only think about the military having. That’s not the case anymore. But it’s perfectly legal. So if my “military-style” AR15 is going to be banned, why aren’t these vehicles banned? I’m not very excited to know that anyone out there could be driving around in an armored, bullet proof car. Not only would one devastate other vehicles in an accident, anyone could hide in one of them and be safe from even the police.

If a person or corporation wanted to, and had enough money of course, they could essentially build a fleet of tanks that look like regular vehicles. Then, armed with their military style automatic assault weapons and camouflage they would be unstoppable!

But me and my semi-automatic AR15 are not a threat to anyone. Nor am I breaking any laws with my firearm use. I am a recreational shooter who enjoys destroying those evil paper targets. That’s all. The media would have you believe I am a crazy with military weapons intent on gunning down people at the mall. I waste a lot of money but that’s the only negative thing that comes from my gun ownership.

Let’s all just try to be reasonable during the next few months. Gun owners, don’t do anything extreme to get back at the anti-gun crowd. It’ll only make us look worse. Anti-gun people, just give us gun owners a chance. Sit down and talk with us. We’re not monsters. We would be more than happy to show you how our guns work too; understanding on both sides is important during this critical time. There is no need to be afraid of guns or people who own them.

Let’s please resolve this issue so i can buy some more ammo . . . those paper targets are mobilizing for an attack in the next few days and all the local stores are sold out of my ammo.

Looks like the NRA decided to pass the blame just like everyone else seems to do now days. While I don’t think the NRA or guns or the 2nd amendment or anything like that are what caused the Connecticut school shooting, it certainly wasn’t “violent” video games and media.

I’ve been a gun owner for 2 years and a gamer for about 19. Of those 19 years I would say that all 19 were filled with games containing “violence”. But all the cartoons I watched were also violent. Just look at Tom and Jerry . . . Tom experienced bone crushing injuries on a regular basis, almost all of which would’ve killed a human had we tried them. Should we ban cartoons too? No there’s certainly another issue underneath all of this.

Why does everyone in america have to pass the blame and point fingers? Why can’t people just defend their position on issues and support ideas they believe in? What’s so hard about that? Maybe we should work on teaching our children to be responsible human beings who know the difference between killing a guy on a tv screen and killing a living breathing human being.

You could easily argue that we shouldn’t have to kill anyone anywhere, real or not. But then you have to define what “violent” really means. Is it as vague as any physical violence? Or do people just have a problem with the killing? If they start with one aspect of controlling or censoring video games and media, much like our gun rights, the other parts collapse quickly behind it. Take away a 30 round mag and next they come after the 20 round mags. Stop allowing human death in video games and then you wont be able to show human death in movies. A lot of classic movies would never have been made if that were the case.

Millions and millions of people play games in the Call of Duty series every day. Millions. This is a game that literally pits one human against another to see who can use a firearm to kill more people than the other. It’s a bit more complicated (and fun) than that but you know what I mean. With all of these millions of people playing such horrific games every day, why aren’t there MORE shootings like the one in Connecticut? If games are the cause of our violent way of life in america, shouldn’t that be the case?

C’mon people. The tragedy that happened in Newtown is a horrible horrible thing. Everybody wants to find out who is to blame and make them suffer. But we can’t because Adam Lanza shot and killed himself. Stop blaming my guns and my games. Support mental health research and funding. We need to get these people help.

If you want to do something good, support and defend what you believe in and don’t point fingers.

Hope all my readers had a good Christmas. Hope Santa brought everyone what they asked for. I sure got what I wanted. Lots of gun stuff!

I’ve been away (not posting) for a while. The news lately has been kinda depressing and I haven’t been feeling very pro guns. Haven’t been optimistic about the future either. I feel like all the stuff I just got (pictured below) will be hard to use soon.

If you can’t tell from the picture I got a pair of thin gloves for shooting this winter, 6 20 round AR15 mags, 3 mag couplers, 3 30 round Mini-14 mags, a box of 22lr ammo, a big box of .223 ammo, and a laser for my pistol. Not pictured items include 45 degree offset iron sights for my AR, an extra SR22 mag, a cleaning kit, an AR wrench, boresights for 22lr and .223, and a large field bag for all my shooting stuff.

I’m extremely lucky to have received so many nice things this year. Especially the ammo and AR parts. With the recent news and talks of a new assault weapon ban the price of firearms has skyrocketed (high enough that Ryan is even considering selling his AR just for a profit). In addition ammo is virtually non-existent. I have a feeling it’ll be this way for quite some time.

Kinda depressing.

I just got into guns not long ago and it seems everything is going downhill fast. I don’t know if ill be posting very frequently for the next few weeks. I’m going to try to avoid the gun news for a bit. If I do any shooting ill review my items but might not post until a later date.

I would ask you to subscribe but . . . well . . . that’d be kinda silly now wouldn’t it? Have a happy New Year!

What a tragedy today. There is no reason this shooting should’ve happened. Especially to children. If you haven’t seen the news today there was a shooting in an elementary school in Connecticut this morning. Reports are saying: “at least 27 shot and killed”. About half of those killed were children . . .

It’s truly horrible what happened and its kinda hard to even believe. If children can’t be safe at home, the movies, the mall, or SCHOOL, where CAN they be safe? To quote one of my coworkers, “those kids never had a chance”. He’s absolutely right. There was nothing in place to protect these children.

I just want to say that my thoughts are with the families and friends of those affected by today’s shooting. Nobody should ever have to live through something like this, especially children who more than likely watched as some of their friends were murdered right in front of them.

I don’t think I’ll be leaving my home anymore without one of my pistols tucked inside my coat. I hope something like this never happens again, anywhere, but I wont be caught unprepared if it DOES.

** Update – 2:39pm **

The shooter is believed to be the son of one of the teachers at the school. The teacher, his mother, is among those murdered.

With hunting season coming to an end in Virginia, ammunition appears to be slowly crawling back onto the shelves of the local stores. Its about time! Ammo has been kinda scarce this past month and all I could find were the really expensive brands.

Unfortunately Tula .223 is still a rare breed. Last year they couldn’t sell the stuff and this year they can’t keep it on the shelves. Lucky for me though I’ve found another local distributor whose name will remain a secret. They sell the Tula ammunition for $5.75 a box. Walmart sells it for $4.95 a box but they never have it anymore. The only place that has it on a regular basis is Dick’s Sporting Goods who charges $6.99 a box! So $5.75 is a pretty comfortable price that’s right in the middle.

Even better is that I didn’t know the place sold ammunition. They don’t advertise as having anything to do with guns so I doubt many other people do either. That means that I should always have a few boxes of Tula available locally. Good thing since I’m going shooting with a coworker this weekend. I was getting low on ammunition but stocked up today; I should be good to go.

I guess tonight and tomorrow I’ll be getting everything ready to go shooting again. Going to be a variety of weapons between the few of us going so I’ll be able to shoot a few new guns. Ill do my best to review the weapons I get to shoot. I just like to get my experiences out there for others to see so that hopefully someone will benefit from the things I learn and share.